Potions & health globes: Would you rather avoid attacks through movement?

Potions & health globes: Would you rather avoid attacks through movement?

I've been playing an unnamed D2 mod which makes the game more difficult, and so for a couple of years now. In order to challenge myself some more, I thought I'd limit myself to using only drops, and never returning to town unless I had to for questing purposes.

In an attempt to reduce my potion consumption, I started weaving in and out of combat. I'd worked out the strategy, to the point where I didn't really need an actual health bar except for those unavoidable situations.

So, here's the question:

Would you rather play a game without globes & potions where your survival is instead based on your ability to avoid predictable but varied monster attacks and skills? I enjoyed that. It renewed my love for D2 combat quite a bit.

Re: Potions & health globes: Would you rather avoid attacks through movement?

Both should be needed imo.
If you don't sometimes move to avoid damage then there shouldnt be enough health orbs to save your ***.

Spec and gear will then influence how much you will have to move.
Already exists for the beta tbh. Just imagine SK hitting 5 times as hard or something. You might always want to move from his big attacks then.

Re: Potions & health globes: Would you rather avoid attacks through movement?

I strongly dislike the health globe system. The D2 potion spam was pretty awful too, but I thought potions with a cool down were a great fix. It would have been great compromise between the "full tactical" play suggested by the OP and the "health being force fed to us" method currently being employed. Health globes are yet another "system" in which the devs are holding our hands so tightly that their knuckles are turning white. I think we, the player, should be intelligent enough to pop a health pot when our health is low, well, maybe not console players...

The devs have tried a bit too hard to not interrupt the action, that they've stripped a lot of Diablo franchise's soul away, IMO.

If you are intelligent enough to pop a health pot on your own, you are intelligent enough to ration the health orb drops and maneuver around them so you do not waste them before you need them.

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This isn't about rationing, it's about the developers taking another decision out of the players hands. With health globes, they're basically saying "Here, you need more HP." Falls in line with, "Here, let us allocate your stat points for you," or "Here, let us develop you skills for you," or "Here, let us decide what weapons you character can and can't use." Did you know that barbs can't equip bows? I discovered it yesterday and was quite surprised.

Re: Potions & health globes: Would you rather avoid attacks through movement?

Umm...right well, here's something for thought. There's a few passive skills that regenerate your resource from using a health globes, in this respect it gives you a more tactical way to play the game and to actually think 'I'll leave that globe there for a few seconds', I do it on the SK fight with my wizard, I blast the hell out of SK and his skeles with my arcane orb and then jump on a globe to regen my arcane power to keep blasting away. It's your choice whether to grab the health globe or not, whether it be for health or resource regeneration. Thankfully pot spamming no longer exists and health globes aren't always guaranteed so you can't play reckless knowing you're going to get healed.

Oh and the 30% reduction for melee is needed, since they're likely to get hit 3 times more than my DH stood at range, it's not a band-aid. If you aren't trying to avoid attacks/using your stuns/incapacitating enemies in some form or way, you will get swarmed, you will get battered, you will die and health globes will matter not. So to answer the OP's question, yes I do like to avoid particular monster spells (which you can do in D3) and yes I also like to use health globes to restore my character (and they don't drop frequent enough to make it easymode for you).

It's nothing about hand-holding, let me know your opinion after you've been playing through the game for a few months. Oh and guess what, all the classes have certain weapon restrictions...so what? :/ Developers are in their right to decide what role your class should fill...otherwise it wouldn't be a class...god the internet boggles me...

This isn't about rationing, it's about the developers taking another decision out of the players hands. With health globes, they're basically saying "Here, you need more HP."

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No, what they're saying is "if you're low on health, better find something to kill". Which is brilliant and exciting gameplay. Or it would be if they had actually removed potions or at least made them somewhat rare.

Re: Potions & health globes: Would you rather avoid attacks through movement?

health orbs are only partially good because, they are too predictable. havent gotten one in 5 kills? guaranteed globe in the next pack of mobs. and you will be ready to swoop on it... too predictable but it will still require some thought for most players or they wont realize it:nod:

No, what they're saying is "if you're low on health, better find something to kill". Which is brilliant and exciting gameplay. Or it would be if they had actually removed potions or at least made them somewhat rare.

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yeah, i've seen better execution of the design in other games. i loled after watching beta vids of players carrying a number of potions in the double digits and health globes dropping like skittles from a rainbow.

It's nothing about hand-holding, let me know your opinion after you've been playing through the game for a few months.

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Do you know what a sample is? It's a subset of a population. Consider Diablo 3 the population and the beta our sample. Unless the devs have some amazing things up their sleeves, the systems that are in the beta are what will be in the final release. The quest system? There is an imaginary rope, with one end tied in New Tristram and the other end tied somewhere near Diablo's throne or whatever in Act IV. You basically hold on to the rope with one hand and fight off the demonic hordes with the other. Skill system? We already know how our characters will progress. Health? Just get close to one of the 37 red globes on the screen. Gem system? If battle.net is true, BORING. Skill points? Decided. Other forms of character customization? Oh wait, there aren't any more. Do you like John P. Demonslayer's build better than your own? You're only a few seconds away from having it! Does he have better gear than you? Let Blizzard welcome you into the real money auction house, such a lovely place! Such a lovely place!

"Don't worry, there is no failing in D3! In here, everyone gets a ribbon!"

No, what they're saying is "if you're low on health, better find something to kill". Which is brilliant and exciting gameplay. Or it would be if they had actually removed potions or at least made them somewhat rare.

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I want this to be true, unfortunately, I don't believe that it is. I believe their intentions were to create a nonstop action game to appeal to larger crowd. No thinking about skills, stat points, health, or quests. Overall, the game is not asking much of the player. Is that bad? It'll probably still be a fun game, but I'd prefer D3 be closer to "RPG" than "Action" on the ol' Action/RPG spectrum.

It's been 12 years, I never could have imagined a sequel to D2 with LESS depth.

the "health being force fed to us" method currently being employed. Health globes are yet another "system" in which the devs are holding our hands so tightly that their knuckles are turning white. I think we, the player, should be intelligent enough to pop a health pot when our health is low, well, maybe not console players...

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It only seems like much because it's Normal.

It doesn't take much to imagine how, later in the game, the decisions in situations like: "oh man, I need that health globe, but its all the way over THERE" become a lot more compelling.

I think it's a great system - you just can't see the full implications of it right now in our limited portion of the game.